Wrath like a Lightning
by Demod20
Summary: Chōjirō Tadaoki Sasakibe is a man spoken posthumously with great praise, but in Canon and Filler, has received very little love and screen time respectively. In this Two-Shot Piece, I plan to show you exactly where I believe the best places to have showcased Chojiro and how awesome he could've turned out to be, if given the time of day Please enjoy Wrath like a Lightning!


**A/N:** _Hey guys, Demod20 here. As an advanced notice, for those who read my Bleach works, I shall come up with a chapter for Dark Horizon by the first two weeks, or so of January._

_For those who are here to read my new stuff, its just a short Two-Shot Fic I wanted to throw out there. A memento to a character I feel is about as underused, underrated, and underdeveloped as Tien Shinhan or Yamcha in DBZ. (LOL XD)_

_With that out of the way, onto the story!_

* * *

**WRATH LIKE A LIGHTNING**

* * *

**Part I - The Beast**

* * *

It felt as if all hope was lost.

That is the sensation that Izuru Kira, Lieutenant of the 3rd Division felt, as he focused on healing the barely stable comrades. Rangiku Matsumoto and Momo Hinamori, only mere minutes ago were combating the enemy. A trio of Arrancars, the Fraccion of the Tres Espada Tier Hallibel, were proving more than capable and durable against the tactics and strategies of the two intelligent Shinigami. To make matters worse, they transformed into their Ressureccion, and formed a monstrosity of unspeakable power: Ayon.

Ayon defeated Rangiku and Momo with a single hit from its behemoth sized fists, ripping part of the former's abdomen off and bludgeoning Momo's midsection with a earth shattering punch. The creature's monstrous strength was unquestionable, as it was able to outmaneuver and overpower two Lieutenants as easily as it had did so.

It was a miracle that Izuru and Shuhei showed up when they did. While the latter had temporarily coiled his Kazeshini's chains around Ayon's head, Izuru would erect Tozansho, a inverted blue pyramid of high defensive power. Almost immediately, he began working on each Lieutenant, stabilizing their conditions and applying all the first aid he could.

Unfortunately, he knew he didn't have much time...

"**Hado #11, Tsuzuri Raiden!**" Shuhei uttered aloud, invoking the destructive Kido spell to ignite a trail of high voltage energy down his chain. When it touched the monster, it convulsed and spasm, howling with great pain.

Not waiting another instant, Lieutenant Hisagi yanked his chain with great strength, sending the beast up over his head. With a yell, the Shinigami sent the beast crashing into the ground with a mighty crash. The force from the impact would be enough to cause the landscape to shake and rumble, sending concussive airwaves from Ayon's ground zero of from his forced descent.

"Yes!" Shuhei thought, as he charged down towards the prone entity, "his weakness is Kido! I can exploit that!"

Shuhei's charge would be halted, as he saw Ayon's head do a complete 180 twist towards the soaring Shinigami's location. Swinging its prone-facing left arm, a hulking fist was sent towards its prey, aiming to crush it within a single blow.

Shuhei quickly employed Shunpo, escaping the monster's counterattack just shy of being crushed instantly. As he landed in the middle of the air, more than a dozen meters, he saw the creature flip itself back onto its hooves. When its head swiveled back into place, much like an owl's, Shuhei shivered with disgust and fear equally. "Damned freak...!"

**SNAP!** Shuhei's eyes narrowed as Ayon made short work of Kazeshini's chain, pulling it off with a single effortless snap. "Don't tell me...that you could've done that at any time you wanted...?"

The beast didn't answer him. Instead, it moved with a frightening lunge to grapple his body with its extended right hand. Grunting, the Lieutenant struggled to get free as the beast held him up towards its large and ugly face.

Then, it opened its mouth to an obscenely large size, aiming to consume the stark scared Lieutenant in one fell swoop. Shuhei struggled and shook in Ayon's grip, desperate to get away from the disgusting, saliva dripping maw poised to clamp down on his insignificantly sized body. He stopped moving, however, when he saw another Shinigami descend from above Ayon.

Tetsuzaemon Iba, Lieutenant of the 7th Division and subordinate under Sajin Komamura. He currently held his Zanpakuto over his head, poised to strike at the enormous mane-covered head of Ayon. The fact that it hadn't turn towards him, with less than six meters of distance between them, gave the Shinigami hope as he descended to attack. "He hasn't notice me yet! I can end this!"

A bulbous and grotesque eye would open amongst the hair, pushing it to the side as it locked a crazed gaze upon the approaching Shinigami. Within seconds, a crimson light glowed mere inches away from its pupil, forming a **Cero Córnea**. A loud scream pierced the air, as Tetsuzaemon was enveloped within the searing red light. The force blew him away towards a half-crumbled structure, crashing heavily into its surface, burying him under the debris that would form from his crash.

"Tetsuzaemon!" Shuhei shouted out with dread. Seeing this freak of nature dispatch another of his comrades so effortlessly distracted his own struggles to escape its mighty grip.

This careless mistake would cost him a ramming into a nearby building. As the air was forced out of his lungs, his vision began to haze from freshly opened wounds from the collision that was caused. Locking both fists over Shuhei's body, Ayon focused on exterminating the life out of the Lieutenant's body, squeezing tightly over his wounded frame.

Shuhei could feel more air rush out of his mouth, his eyes widening out from the pain searing his nerves. Audible cracks and crunches of cartilage and bone straining beneath his bloodied skin would be heard, confirming his swift degradation into a life threatening state.

Instead of finishing the job, however, Ayon would suddenly toss Shuhei's body over its shoulder nonchalantly. Even as his body fell with a painful crunch on the ground behind him, it stepped heavily towards its new quarry: The Shinigami it didn't get to kill!

This was the sense of dread that Izuru felt, ever since he created the barrier. The lingering doubt that he, Shuhei, or anyone proximate to them could kill this abomination had entered his mind when he saw the conditions that his fallen comrades were in. Seeing the beast trod casually towards his direction, with Shuhei and Tetsuzaemon incapacitated, left him in a state of sheer panic.

"Its coming...shit!" Izuru uttered aloud. His hands trembled at the quaking footsteps Ayon took towards him, with each and every movement drawing it closer to the inverted barrier pyramid. He struggled to keep his healing energies pouring forth on his comrades, swallowing hard as his eyes refused to look away from the collosal freak of nature. "just a little longer...just a little longer...that's all I need...!"

The beast's last step would come to a halt. A vibrant flash of light elapsed over Izuru's line of sight, almost blinding him from its brilliance. As he blinked away the stars in his field of vision, his mouth went agape at what he saw.

Ayon's chest, right where his heart should be, had a four foot hole in a perfect circular shape. The insides of the pierced flesh seemed to be instantly cauterized, with only small trails of hot blood oozing down its chest from the indicated wound it had received.

"It seems that this creature has proven to be quite troublesome for you all," A familiar voice rang in front of Izuru's barrier, as the man in question stood stalwart before the monster. His Zanpakuto was released, taking the form of an elegant rapier with wafts of steam coming off the edge of the recently employed weapon. His hazel eyes fixed stoically upon Ayon's standing form, he raised his Zanpakuto up to make a vertically dividing line upon his visage, "let me put an end to your misery, my comrades!"

"L-Lieutenant Sasakibe?!" Izuru gasped with audible disbelief.

"The Captain-Commander cannot be bothered with handling battles on his own. It is the duty of his subordinates to carry that priviledge out," Chojiro chided his fellow compatriot, knowing that he would ask about their superior, "however, this beast is of foul origins and is not of ordinary design. From now on, you shall leave this battle to me and me alone."

"S-Sure...whatever you say," Izuru answered with trepidation, his eyes shifting from monster to Shinigami. With caution he'd move his eyes back onto Rangiku and Momo's forms, resuming his healing. The relief that he received from Chojiro's presence was overwhelming. What had been the sense of an abysmal sensation had quickly transformed into one of hope and aspiration.

"_I'll do my part, so long as you do yours, Chojiro,_" Izuru thought to himself as beads of sweat trailed down his scalp and dripping off his chin.

* * *

"Who the Hell is this guy?! Why are Shinigami so insistent on jumping in where they're not wanted?!" Apacci yelled with great irritation, balling her fist up with an angry pair of veins protruding from her knuckles and her forehead.

"This Shinigami...seems different," Sung-Sun analyzed softly, her eyes drifting down to the stalwart and unphased Shinigami who stood with Shikai in hand.

"The only thing that makes him different is that he's still standing while his comrades have fallen," Mila Rose growled out, flashing fangs down at her enemy with disgust, "he'll join them soon enough..."

* * *

As Chojiro stared down at the beast, the creature seemed to be more preoccupied with its own wound. Taking its right hand up to inspect the wound, it slapped the hole on its chest. Growling, it did so again, with greater force. Ayon would continue beating t he wound on his chest over and over, spreading a thick wad of blood between his palm and his chest.

"_**RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!**_" Ayon roared mightily, causing the landscape to shake from the disrupted airwaves emitting from its gargantuan mouth. Its eyes bulged, glazing into a fearful white haze, emphasizing its rage as a bright crimson aura of Spiritual Power built up around him. Veins protruded all along its body, its muscles bulking up and increasing in mass, nearly doubling in size from the strenuous effort. The enormous hole that had been created by Chojiro sealed itself shut from the physical growth, erasing any sign of injury that had been there. By the time it was finished, his teeth were gnashed together in a bared position, its whited-out eyes glaring towards him.

"Poor creature," Chojiro responded levelly, his eyes lowering as right heel tapped his perpendicularly left ankle, lowering his rapier to be level with his sternum with readiness, "you are nothing but a construct of madness and rage. I'll ensure that your pain doesn't continue for long."

Ayon didn't hesitate for a second longer.

A swift thrust of its fist plowed through the earth, barreling towards Chojiro's position. When the arm connected to the ground, a massive uproar of structures and street was crushed in an instant, billowing out for dozens of meters.

A few seconds passed as the dust cleared, revealing the Shinigami's location to be posterior to the beast. His Shikai crackled with a vibrant golden hue, as tendrils sprayed from the metal, indicating fresh use. "Your attack left you wide open, monster."

**SPLURCH!** An instant later, Ayon's right arm would fall down in precisely one dozen cleanly cut circular pieces. They were still crisp and cauterized on the inside, caused by the extreme heat from his Zanpakuto employing such swift severing motions. The fist was left cemented in the earth as the rest of the limb would come falling down.

Ayon retaliated by twisting its head in a complete circle, locking its enraged sockets upon his location. Upon reflex, a pair of dual crimson orbs began rev up, charging up to maximum power for its **Cero Córnea**...

**KRAK-KOOM!** The Ceros would detonate prematurely, causing a brilliant orange explosion to envelop the beast's visage, knocking it straight onto its chest. The source would be a fading golden flash of light, emanating from the edge of Chojiro's sideways aimed Zanpakuto.

"My Zanpakuto, **Gonryomaru**, wields the power of lightning. It is literally the fastest attack any can muster within the entire Soul Society," Chojiro explained to the writhing beast, watching it struggle to right itself back up to the ground, "there are none with the speed to see, let alone evade such a terrifying force of nature. You cannot win this battle. Return to your masters at once!"

"G-Gaaaaaugh..." Ayon groaned as it heaved its grotesquely large body back to its feet. Its once maddened face now was reduced to charred flesh, barely hanging onto a behemoth cracked and blackened skull, obscene teeth crumbling to ash under the pressure its jaws were putting upon each other. The eyes were swollen with blood and visible veins, with obvious pain and exertion upon its person.

"So you refuse to listen?" Chojiro asked with an upraised brow, raising his Zanpakuto upwards with emphasis.

"GRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGH!" Ayon bellowed in response, sending wads of spit and hot air from its wounded maw. The airwaves still made the landscape quake, and its abysmal spiritual pressure was very much intact.

"Allow me to silence that obscene tongue of yours, Hollow!" Chojiro yelled aloud with declaration, as his body became enveloped with a transparent aura of violet Spiritual Power.

The intensity it created upon the atmosphere created dozens of tendrils to emerge within the air, crackling and snapping with violent spasms across the horizon. Noticeably, the sky darkened above them, forming cumulonimbi seemingly out of nowhere. Golden streaks of ominously clapping thunderbolts danced within the heavens above them.

This painted a terrifying pair of silhouettes over Ayon and Chojiro equally, with the latter's violet aura still enveloping his being. His white jacket and Shikhakusho flourished wildly a along with his hair, signifying the intensity of his own power discharging from his person.

Ayon leaped forward. Its enlarged fist lead the way, as the rest of its enormous body followed, intending on pulverizing the enemy who dared stop his rampage upon its prey. Its bellow would pierce the air, only to have it be deafened to what would follow.

"**Genzen Jukei!**" Chojiro shouted aloud, swinging his rapier downwards in a brilliant violet arc.

What happened next was instantaneous to the swing of his blade. A voluminous tower of electricity would plummet down and pound mercilessly into Ayon's body. The sheer heat of the lightning turned the skin instantly to charred bits, revealing bones within moments. The beast wouldn't even have time to retort, scream, or feel the pain as its body would be turned into ashes, along with everything within the ten meter wide crater.

It was then, that rain began to fall down upon the ground from above. Chojiro's body began dampening, as his eyes stoically regarded the beast he had slain and how powerful it truly was.

"_Perhaps you may find peace in what realm lies ahead of you, Beast born of Arrancar Flesh,_" Chojiro thought to himself briefly.

* * *

"I-Incredible!" Izuru thought as he witnessed the power that Chojiro Sasakibe unleashed. Having finished with stabilizing and preforming immediate first aid, he was allowed the privilege of watching the last few seconds of his fellow Lieutenant's battle. The stoic calm, the commanding presence, and the prowess of combat that he withheld truly reminded him of how a Captain would act in this situation.

"Was Chojiro always this strong?" Izuru wondered aloud, even as he placed his hands upon the surface of his own barrier.

"Do not lose focus, Lieutenant!" Chojiro's voice shouted aloud, jarring Izuru from his awestruck stupor, "strengthen your barrier immediately!"

* * *

What came next would be a trio of descending silhouettes, with a brief flash of atmospheric lightning revealing the forms of the Arrancar trio. Each of them still had a missing arm, but didn't hinder their enraged resolve in the slightest to continue the fight. Sung-Sun unraveled a pale snake that bared fangs, Apacci raising her claws over her head, with Mila Rose wielding the only sword of the group around her side in preparation for a wide swipe.

"Your tenacity in the face of the enemy is admirable, Arrancars," Chojiro spoke smoothly with approval, as his eyes stared up at them.

"DIE...!" Appaci yelled.

"...YOU...!" Sung-Sun continued hissed.

"...SHINIGAMI!" Mila Rose snarled aloud.

**KRAK-KOOOOOOM!** With a single swing of his Zanpakuto to the side, a bolt of lightning rained down from the sky, forking out to three separate fissures of destructive power. Each of them were enveloped within the high voltage net of blinding electrical light, causing them all to gurgle and scream behind the golden flashes of pain emitting shocks.

"In honor of your bravery, I shall leave you alive with those scars," Chojiro spoke in a level tone, turning his head away from them as the three attackers fell to the ground, inert and unconscious.

* * *

"A-Amazing!" Izuru whispered aloud, his lone eye wide with amazement, "he took all three of them down with a single attack!"

Chojiro, satisfied with the battle's end, swung his blade out to the side. In an instant, it reverted to its sealed form, allowing him to ceremoniously sheathe it back within its scabbard. Turning towards the inverted pyramid barrier, Chojiro's dampened face stoically stared in his direction. "Make sure you keep watch over them until medical aid can arrive."

"O-Of course," Izuru nodded with agreement, quickly to follow-up with a question, "where will you be then?"

"At the Captain Commander's side," Chojiro answered matter-of-factly, turning his back to Izuru as he began walking away, "as it has been and always be. I will do my best to fulfill his wishes and fight on his behalf. Until the day I swept away in the violent storm that is war, I shall endeavor to keep doing so."

With that said, Chojiro disappeared within a flickering blur, indicating his employment of Shunpo. Leaving the battlefield scarred, bearing the unconscious and wounded, as the rain continued to pour endlessly and without sight of ceasing. All the while, the wrathful lightning continued to roar over the horizon.

The battle will continue to rage on...

* * *

**A/N:** Oooooh boy! When you get an idea, sometimes you have to strike the iron while its hot, otherwise its gone. That's what this story kind've felt like to me. I know this is a short one, even by my standards, but believe that this was a story worth writing.

First off, this Chapter Title was inspired by the recently released Manga Chapter, "Wrath like a Lightning" in the One Thousand Year Blood War Arc. I thought it was a cool title and was a good way to give my respects to the original creator of Bleach :)

Chōjirō Tadaoki Sasakibe is a man, whom during the recent Arc, was unfairly KO'd offscreen yet again, but this time for keeps. He's a man who was then posthumously given a LOT of praise and worthwhile mentioning by Byakuya (sans Kubo) to how awesome he was supposed to be. I felt a bit cheated that such a underdeveloped character, Lieutenant of the First Division at that, had received so little screen time or attention at all. I know its a large cast of characters, but in this ONE scene alone, it would've been enough to showcase his Zanpakuto abilities, as well as the idea that he was just caught off guard by Ichigo and really IS a Captain-level Shinigami.

**Interesting Info**: Genzen Jukei translates to, "Solemn Punishment," in Japanese.

But alas, I just hope my Fanfic will do him justice. :)

Please join me next time, as I write out the second battle I believe Chojiro should've been a part of ^_^


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